diff --git a/_pyinstaller_hooks_contrib/rthooks.dat b/_pyinstaller_hooks_contrib/rthooks.dat
index 538e94909..f868f56f7 100644
--- a/_pyinstaller_hooks_contrib/rthooks.dat
+++ b/_pyinstaller_hooks_contrib/rthooks.dat
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 {
     'cryptography': ['pyi_rth_cryptography_openssl.py'],
     'enchant': ['pyi_rth_enchant.py'],
+    'findlibs': ['pyi_rth_findlibs.py'],
     'ffpyplayer': ['pyi_rth_ffpyplayer.py'],
     'osgeo': ['pyi_rth_osgeo.py'],
     'traitlets': ['pyi_rth_traitlets.py'],
diff --git a/_pyinstaller_hooks_contrib/rthooks/pyi_rth_findlibs.py b/_pyinstaller_hooks_contrib/rthooks/pyi_rth_findlibs.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..43d3db11d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_pyinstaller_hooks_contrib/rthooks/pyi_rth_findlibs.py
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Copyright (c) 2024, PyInstaller Development Team.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+#
+# The full license is in the file COPYING.txt, distributed with this software.
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+# Override the findlibs.find() function to give precedence to sys._MEIPASS, followed by `ctypes.util.find_library`,
+# and only then the hard-coded paths from the original implementation. The main aim here is to avoid loading libraries
+# from Homebrew environment on macOS when it happens to be present at run-time and we have a bundled copy collected from
+# the build system. This happens because we (try not to) modify `DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH`, and the original `findlibs.find()`
+# implementation gives precedence to environment variables and several fixed/hard-coded locations, and uses
+# `ctypes.util.find_library` as the final fallback...
+def _pyi_rthook():
+    import sys
+    import os
+    import ctypes.util
+
+    import findlibs
+
+    _orig_find = getattr(findlibs, 'find', None)
+
+    def _pyi_find(lib_name, pkg_name=None):
+        pkg_name = pkg_name or lib_name
+        extension = findlibs.EXTENSIONS.get(sys.platform, ".so")
+
+        # First check sys._MEIPASS
+        fullname = os.path.join(sys._MEIPASS, "lib{}{}".format(lib_name, extension))
+        if os.path.isfile(fullname):
+            return fullname
+
+        # Fall back to `ctypes.util.find_library` (to give it precedence over hard-coded paths from original
+        # implementation).
+        lib = ctypes.util.find_library(lib_name)
+        if lib is not None:
+            return lib
+
+        # Finally, fall back to original implementation
+        if _orig_find is not None:
+            return _orig_find(lib_name, pkg_name)
+
+        return None
+
+    findlibs.find = _pyi_find
+
+
+_pyi_rthook()
+del _pyi_rthook
diff --git a/news/799.new.rst b/news/799.new.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..73fd3b0df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/799.new.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+Add run-time hook for ``findlibs`` that overrides the ``findlibs.find``
+function with custom implementation in order to ensure that the top-level
+application directory is searched first. This prevents a system-wide
+copy of the library being found and loaded instead of the bundled copy
+when the system-wide copy happens to be available in one of fixed
+locations that is scanned by the original implementation of ``findlibs.find``
+(for example, Homebrew directory on macOS).
diff --git a/tests/test_libraries.py b/tests/test_libraries.py
index c3270a49f..3233a986e 100644
--- a/tests/test_libraries.py
+++ b/tests/test_libraries.py
@@ -2068,6 +2068,9 @@ def test_eccodes_gribapi(pyi_builder):
             #  - sys._MEIPASS/eccodes
             #  - sys._MEIPASS/eccodes.libs
             #  - sys._MEIPASS/eccodes/.dylibs
+            # as well as sys._MEIPASS itself (in case system-wide copy was collected into top-level application
+            # directory but is reported with full path instead of just basename due to our override of `findlibs.find()`
+            # via run-time hook).
             if pathlib.PurePath(sys._MEIPASS) not in pathlib.PurePath(library_path).parents:
                 raise RuntimeError(
                     f"Shared library path {library_path} is not rooted in top-level application directory!"